Most ordinary answering machines are limited in function. They record a message and play it back at a later date. The advent of more sophisticated telephone network services in buildings and in the general population, as well as more sophisticated cable and telephone systems, allows greater potential for recording information, telephone messages and prompts transmitted into a recording unit from a communication channel operatively connected to a telephone network or cable system.
Sophisticated information is now available, such as caller identification, time of call, video data, billing and credit information, interactive multimedia and other data. With the increase of information becoming difficult to manage, it is desirable sometimes to separate the information or classify the main parts until it can be analyzed later, such as on playback from a recording unit. It would also be desirable if some information such as the identification of the caller, the time of the call, and other pertinent details could be displayed on a video display such as a television set. This may be important to users who desire their premises to be a safe haven from numerous phone calls, while allowing some calls which have been recorded to be handled at a later time.
Such a unit would also have to be expandable to allow adaptability to different services which could be offered on a network. New services are increasingly important, and any unit should be adaptable for a wide range of services. Additionally, the unit should be usable by a homeowner within the premises without much difficulty.